I think I may been done with this one. I have spent a lot of time tweaking this since my last post (over a year!).
Here are a few of the changes since my initial release:
-Trees have been added.
-Terrain has been modified.
-Terrain colors have been modified.
-Era victory newspapers now include custom images
and historical information.
-Other slight variations that make the game flow smoother.

Back again, I guess I was losing my touch
Perhaps I have been testing too few new maps.

Anyway, this time I got all the goals and enjoyed hugely the careful and clever design of your map! EVERY resource needs to be utilized to the full to ensure success, and what fun it was to get everything right, even though it ate up all my weekend. But I would not want to attempt the map at anything more difficult than Investor level.

This is a great map. Much enjoyed. Many thanks to the creator and testers. Played it some time ago, but I remember the experience fondly.

This is a saved game from my best finish. Started in Utica. No AI, no patents, Robber Baron difficulty, finished April 1934.

Main point of this is to show my routing method as this map was instrumental in pushing me to improve track usage over the longer distance runs.

You will notice that sometimes I have track running through a station without any signals. This is what I call inactive station track. It doesn't allow a train to stop at the station, but I don't want it too either. I make it by using the single track mode to lay through the stations active area. Double track in this area will activate as a station track. The main reason for this is that it's impossible to avoid the game placing two signals on an active through station track. They are too close to allow a siding and a train in a station will jump them when it turns between loading and un-loading. Basically, the most unreliable part of the routing system. These inactive station tracks can also be used between the active ones in such a way that a route can travel right across a map without using overpasses.

Please note that I have a jamming situation on the New York City to Buffalo line because I have overloaded it with 10 trains. 6-7 trains would be safe.

The overload is allowing one or more tailing trains to run close enough that they will try to overtake other trains pointing in the same direction especially those waiting at the second last siding before the station. The tailing train will enter a siding at which the forward train is already waiting for a train in the other direction. It's a bit complicated to explain, but it's a limitation of the SMR routing situation which can only look through ONE signal. If SMR sees more than one possible route up ahead it will allow a train to pass. This is the logical basis for my setups as best I can explain it.

I was taking the time to manually avoid the overload situation by changing the direction of some trains for long enough to prevent them from running up on the forward trains. This enabled me to cut down further on time to complete.

I tried the new version. The game gave me an Albany start. On Robber Baron it was just possible in the previous version, but with the extra time it's easier to head down to Poughkeepsie and after a few profits to reach New York. All the express available gives a strong revenue stream, allowing completion of the other first era connections in time. This revenue advantage continues throughout the remainder of the game. For example, all tasks were completed in 1898 without patents or getting ruthless.

Probably you knew about this possibility? I mention it because it seems a way to get outside the story-line, to a degree. Even so, this map is the best I have seen to let the player experience a historical story. Even being a little easier, there are few enough possibilities to keep strategy value high and also to keep the player on track with the story. Well done!

PS. Small thing I noticed: Fish is no longer used as a cargo, but is still in the Goods list. Another: Syracuse starting location includes a bridge in the given track, that bridge overlap isn't a good look to my eye. Maybe dropping the point where the station spawns just a little could solve this, or just fill that hollow a little in the terrain editor?